THE LIST: FIVE OF THE BEST FROM SUSAN PRIOR

Every film industry needs an actress like Australian film needs Susan Prior. In Hollywood, it’s Judy Greer; the U.K. has Janet McTeer and Joely Richardson; the French rely upon Ludivine Sagnier. Prior and her global peers are that most valued of cast members - the character actor, the presence that ensures depth, integrity and intelligence. Prior has become a beloved presence on the small-screen (All Saints; Puberty Blues; Top of the Lake; The Gloaming) and one of the nation’s most respected stage performers (opposite Hugo Weaving in Riflemind, for director Philip Seymour Hoffman; the renowned Bell Shakspeare production of King Lear).

Recognised early in her career as an asset to any film production (Idiot Box, 1996; Heaven's Burning, 1997; Praise, 1998), our film sector has turned repeatedly to one of our finest actors. Ahead of her online discussion with Actors Centre Australia Head of Acting Adam Cook this Wednesday, May 13, we look to the big-screen for Susan Prior’s five best movie moments....        

THE ROVER (Dir: David Michôd; 2014) Pairing with her Animal Kingdom director brought Prior a long-overdue industry statuette - the AACTA Best Supporting Actress trophy for her role as ‘Dorothy Peeples’. David Michôd’s bleak, dystopian outback-noir needed an actress of rare strength to shine against the eccentricity of leads Guy Pearce and Robert Pattison and ugliness of the setting; Prior (and co-star Gillian Jones) punch through the oppressiveness of the material with fierce, forceful, female potency. 

THE VIEW FROM GREENHAVEN (Dirs: The MacRae Brothers; 2008) Kenn and Simon MacRae’s bittersweet drama/comedy allows Prior her most naturally warm and endearing role. As ‘Kate’, the daughter who yearns for some input into the complex marital dynamics of her ageing parents, Wendy Hughes and Chris Hayward, Prior (alongside a wonderful Russell Dyskstra) is a typically lovely presence; the naturalness of her performance underlines the ease with which the actress projects warmth and empathy on-screen.

A DIVIDED HEART (Dir: Denny Lawrence; 2005) An all-too-rare lead role for Prior in this World War II-set romantic drama. Director Denny Lawrence (Emoh Ruo, 1985; Afraid to Dance, 1995) and legendary producer, the late David Hannay (Stone, 1974; Mapantsula, 1988) cast Prior as Millie Vickery, the wife of an Australian soldier (David Roberts) who finds herself in conflict with her sister (Blazey Best) for the affection of an American serviceman (fellow NIDA alumni, Christopher Stollery). Scant cinema exposure and dumped onto DVD by Roadshow Home Video, the handsomely-produced period piece is testament to Prior’s potent presence as a leading lady given the right vehicle.

BOOK WEEK (Dir: Heath Davis; 2018) In one of 2018’s great support performances, Prior plays Lee, a career high-school teacher whose pragmatism and strength of character helps her boozy, directionless colleague Nick (the equally wonderful Alan Dukes; pictured, right) through some tough times.  “Susan is easily the most hard working, passionate and prepared actress I’ve ever seen,” director Heath Davis told Cinema Australia. “She puts her heart and soul into everything in order to find the truth of a scene. She lives and breathes it like all the greats.” (Read the SCREEN-SPACE Review here)    

ANIMAL KINGDOM (Dir: David Michôd; 2010) Prior and Michôd had worked together as part of the editorial team at industry journal Inside Film, where they became close. When the young director moved forward on his debut feature after years in development, Prior’s involvement in a small but pivotal role as ‘Alicia Henry’ came about through both their friendship and a deep respect for each other's talent. In hindsight, the acclaimed crime thriller launched a new wave of local talent into the global film sector and Prior’s presence was central to a landmark moment in Australian film history.

IN CONVERSATION: SUSAN PRIOR is a live streaming event via the ACTORS CENTRE AUSTRALIA Facebook page. It will commence 7:30pm AEST on Wednesday, May 13.

R.I.P. ALAN CASSELL

For 40 years, one of the most sturdy and reliable character players in the Australian film sector was a Brit expat Alan Cassell. A master of the stage (he featured opposite Lauren Bacall in Sweet Bird of Youth for the Sydney Theatre Company) and a constant presence on local television (27 small-screen credits, including ‘Prime Minister John Gorton’ in the landmark mini-series, Vietnam), Cassell was a cherished cast member in many of the great films of the industry’s boom decades. On the occasion of his passing in Melbourne on August 30 at the age of 85, we honour the memorable moments of Cassell’s rich big screen career… 

CATHY’S CHILD (1979) and HARLEQUIN (1980)
Plying his trade on Australia’s west coast earned Cassell lead parts in two Perth-based productions - Edgar Metcalfe’s dramatic thriller, The Olive Tree (1975) and Terry O’Rourke’s bawdy soft-core romp Plugg (1975). Relocating to the eastern seaboard, roles in the TV series Matlock and a stand-out ‘crooked cop’ role in Bruce Beresford’s ensemble heist hit Money Movers (1978) signalled to the industry that Cassell was that great supporting player who could enliven any narrative.  Director Donald Crombie cast Cassell opposite Michele Fawdon in Cathy’s Child, a powerful drama about a mother determined to get her stolen daughter back; it would earn Fawdon the AFI Best Actress award and secure Cassell a Best Actor nomination (his only nod from the industry body). When casting the pricey genre thriller Harlequin, director Simon Wincer and producer Anthony Ginnane recognised Cassell’s worth and gave him a key role in the 1980 production opposite a cast of international imports including Broderick Crawford, Robert Powell and David Hemmings. (Pictured, right; a promotional lobby card for Cathy's Child, featuring Cassell and star Michele Fawdon)    

BREAKER MORANT (1980), THE CLUB (1980) and PUBERTY BLUES (1981).
On the set of Money Movers, Cassell had developed a strong professional rapport and lasting friendship with his director, Bruce Beresford. The filmmaker drew upon that mutual respect for three films that would come to represent Cassell’s most acclaimed character work. Beresford cast Cassell as pompous Brit officer Lord Kitchener, working against the actor’s working class roots, in the international hit, Breaker Morant. As football club administrator Gerry Cooper, Cassell gave perhaps his finest career performance in Beresford’s adaptation of David Williamson’s The Club, holding his own opposite Jack Thompson, Graham Kennedy and Frank Wilson. In the director’s teen classic Puberty Blues, Cassell played the ‘suburban dad’ to perfection as Mr Vickers, father of Nell Schofield’s wild child beach girl Debbie. (pictured, above; Cassell with Beresford on the set of Money Movers)  

The 1980s: SQUIZZY TAYLOR (1982), THE DARK ROOM (1982), FIRE IN THE STONE (1984) and BELINDA (1988)
Cassell worked to greater acclaim on television for the duration of the 1980s including the lead in Special Squad (an Aussie take on tough Brit police thrillers The Sweeney and The Professionals) and a 14 episode arc on Neighbours. His film work from the period was first rate, though often in service of films that saw minor theatrical seasons before their home video shelf life. Most prominent amongst them was Kevin James Dobson’s period crime thriller Squizzy Taylor, starring David Atkins as the 1920s underworld figure and Cassell as Detective Brophy, the hardened cop out to get him. US director Paul Harmon’s solid potboiler The Darkroom afforded Cassell a rare leading man role in a cast that included Anna Maria Monticelli and Rowena Wallace (and a blink-and-miss bit part for a young Baz Luhrmann). Other films in which Cassell made an impression include Howard Rubie’s romantic bush yarn The Settlement, opposite Bill Kerr, John Jarratt and Lorna Lesley; Gary Conway’s young adult adventure romp The Fire in The Stone, most notable for its origins as a novel from Storm Boy author, Colin Thiele; and, Pamela Gibbon’s semi-autobiographical dance drama Belinda (aka, Midnight Dancer), with Cassell comfortable as the anxious father of Deanne Jeff’s showgirl wannabe. (Pictured, above; a screengrab from The Darkroom, featuring Cassell and co-star, Svet Kovich)

THE HONOURABLE WALLY NORMAN (2003) and STRANGE BEDFELLOWS (2004)
In his final screen appearances, Alan Cassell got to play in two broad comedies, a bigscreen genre that had largely passed him by for most of his career. As his persona softened throughout the 90s with warmer and often very funny parts in TV series like The Flying Doctors, SeaChange and The Micallef Program, producers sought out his effortless charm to enliven their would-be crowdpleasers. In The Honourable Wally Norman, veteran comedy director Ted Emery used Cassell as the pivotal character, boozy politician Willy Norman, who misspells his own name and sets Kevin Harrington’s average Joe ‘Wally Norman’ on a course to Canberra. In Dean Murphy’s gay-themed romp Strange Bedfellows, Cassell plays ‘small country town beffudlement’ with warmth and integrity, opposite leads Paul Hogan and Michael Caton.